NYPD Monitored Muslim Student Group At Rutgers

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students far more broadly than previously known, including an undercover operation near Rutgers University.

Police monitored Muslim student group websites across the Northeast and noted which professors were lecturing. Documents obtained by The Associated Press show people who’d been accused of no wrongdoing were named in reports for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said several terrorists have attended Muslim student groups, so police wanted a handle on what was happening there. He said monitoring websites stopped in 2007.

The undercover effort in New Brunswick, N.J., was discovered in 2009. One of the goals was to keep an eye on the Rutgers Muslim student group. A Rutgers spokesman said only that the university was unaware of it at the time.